In an action that has already made headlines around the world, Code Pink stole the show yesterday with an attempted citizen’s arrest of Henry Kissinger for War Crimes committed during his tenure as Secretary of State from 1973-1977.
As the 91 year old Kissinger took to his seat at the witness table alongside former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and George Shultz for a hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee on global threats and national security strategy, chants of “Arrest Henry Kissinger for War Crimes, arrest Henry Kissinger for War Crimes, arrest Henry Kissinger for War Crimes” began pulsating throughout the chambers. Press hovered over the scene, and Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin began speaking for the voiceless, calling for the citizen’s arrest of Kissinger for war crimes:
In the name of the people of Chile
In the name of the people of Vietnam
In the name of the people of East Timor
In the name of the people of Cambodia
In the name of the people of Laos
Activists then read aloud a citizen’s arrest (text below). Senator John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee (currently facing charges of being a “war monger” himself from critics in his own party) bent to the microphone and announced that in all his years on the committee he had “never seen anything as disgraceful, and outrageous, as despicable”. Then he told Code Pink protestors to “get outta here” and called them “you low life scum.”
Do we worry about that invective? Heck no! Take a look at that iconic photo at the top of the page. The die was cast a long time ago: Kissinger’s legacy, his complicity in crimes against humanity, is what he will be remembered for, from his service as Secretary of State and national security advisor.
“Henry Kissinger is responsible for the deaths of millions,” Benjamin said in a press release issued by Code Pink. “He’s a murderer, a liar, a crook, and a thug, and should be tried at the Hague.” CP action organizer Anna Kaminski called Kissinger “The great American villain.”
Press Release:
“CODEPINK is really proud of our action in the Senate today, speaking out on behalf of the people of Indochina, China, East Timor and peace-loving people everywhere,” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin, “Henry Kissinger is responsible for the deaths of millions. He’s a murderer, a liar, a crook, and a thug, and should be tried at the Hague.”
“I chose to speak out during the Senate Arms Committee because I’m appalled that the Senate would bring in a war criminal to testify about ‘American leadership’ when the only things Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright have shown leadership in is wreaking destruction upon other countries and murdering countless innocent civilians,” said 26-year-old CODEPINK National Coordinator Alli McCracken. “Is that the leadership we want to uphold as a nation and use to determine our current and future foreign policies? We need to stop rehashing these tired old war criminals and come up with a new foreign policy based on diplomacy and compassion –– two things Kissinger knows nothing about.”
“Henry Kissinger is one of many representatives of the culture of impunity which still dominates American leaders’ approach to foreign policy. While he has been continually criticized by activists for his orchestration of or support for egregious crimes, he is regarded as a bulwark for global diplomacy by those who walk the hallowed halls of congress. His true legacy is that of destruction. He is the great American villain, Kissinger’s agent orange in Vietnam is Bush’s Depleted Uranium in Iraq, the time to end impunity is now,” said Anna Kaminski, a CODEPINK organizer.
The Citizens’ Arrest warrant denounced Henry Kissinger for complicity in the bombings in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile and the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. “Democracies should hold their officials accountable for their acts. That’s why we demand that Kissinger be arrested for crimes against humanity and tried at the Hague,” the warrant concluded.
Maybe McCain thinks his rebuke of Code Pink will whitewash the harsh public scolding he got from members of his own party last weekend. Check out the loud boos coming from the audience as McCain takes to the stage at the annual statutory meeting of the State Committee of the Arizona Republican party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfHWSYy-WRY
Here’s text from the Citizen’s Arrest Warrant calling for the arrest of Henry Kissinger for War Crimes:
Vietnam: From 1969 through 1973, Kissinger, working for Richard Nixon, oversaw the slaughter in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, which led to the deaths of millions of people. Many thousands more died from the affects of massive doses of Agent Orange and from unexploded US bombs that cover the countryside.
Chile: Henry Kissinger was one of the principle architects of the coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, a coup that overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. Sixteen years of repression, torture and death followed under the rule of Kissinger’s friend, the fascist Augusto Pinochet.
East Timor: In 1975, while working for President Gerald Ford, Kissinger pre-approved the Indonesian dictator Suharto’s bloody invasion of the small island of East Timor. This illegal act of aggression was carried out with weapons furnished by the US. By the time the Indonesian occupation finally ended in 1999, 200,000 Timorese – 30 percent of the population – had been wiped out.
This is Kissinger’s legacy. Death. Destruction. Suffering. Misery. Dictatorships. His is a murderer, a liar, a crook, a thug.
Democracies should hold their officials accountable for their acts. That’s why we demand that Kissinger be arrested for crimes against humanity and tried at the Hague.
CODEPINK, January 29, 2015
Ya know Anne, I have to tell ya; It’s one thing for Code Pink to stage a demonstration in the Senate Arms Services Committee holding up handcuffs and calling out for War Crimes charges against a 91 year old Henry Kissinger. It’s another for you and Mondoweiss to applaud it.
WOW!
Code Pink could have showed some restraint. They could have remained in the audience and protested from there, but Code Pink had to bum rush these old farts and now they look like elderly abusers.
All heart, these activists, all heart.
You people love humanity, and hate humans; a serious character defect.
Bravo, bravo, bravo, Code Pink. Too bad they skipped Lebanon in the accusations and his involvement in Lebanon’s civil war and its take over by Syria and Israel; From the Daily Star:
“BEIRUT: A new set of declassified documents on the run-up to the Syrian intervention in Lebanon’s Civil War sheds light on American diplomacy during the crisis, including contacts with late President Hafez Assad’s regime and U.S. hopes that a Syrian intervention would weaken Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. The documents, minutes of meetings involving U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, reveal the top U.S. diplomat’s open contempt and frustration toward Israeli policymakers for threatening to invade south Lebanon in response to a Syrian intervention.
“You know these Israelis really are shits,” Kissinger said at a meeting in March 1976, expressing anger at the possibility of an Israeli attack.
The archival documents show the U.S. administration had foreknowledge of a possible Syrian intervention, deciding it was in accordance with U.S. interests but refraining from supporting it publicly in fear of the invasion sparking a broad Middle Eastern war.
“Now if I could design the solution, I would go to Assad and say, ‘If you could move in quickly, and if you could give us an iron clad guarantee that you will get out again quickly and that you will not go south of the [Litani] river, we will keep the Israelis out,’” he said in one meeting.
The minutes show a Kissinger deeply involved in Middle Eastern politics, conferring on an almost daily basis with top advisers and closely following Lebanon’s descent into violence while trying to grapple with the insurmountable complexity of its civil war politics.
Kissinger saw benefits to a Syrian intervention, guessing that it would weaken Arafat’s PLO, but he refrained from backing it publicly and in talks with Syrian officials.
The documents paint an image of an irreverent, sharp and sometimes profane man, who was also prone to generalizations, for instance describing Egyptian negotiators as “duplicitous.”
They are also striking because they show the relatively close relationship between the Assad regime and the U.S.
The documents are part of a multi-volume series called “Foreign Relations of the United States.” The volume dealing with the Arab-Israeli dispute includes a set of archival files on meetings concerning Lebanon at the start of the Civil War.
American officials had a low opinion of Lebanese politicians at the time. Former President Suleiman Franjieh is described as “a disaster,” Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt as “crazy” and political leaders as “warlords.”
Syrian intervention in Lebanon was discussed in a meeting on Oct. 13, immediately sparking talk of a likely Israeli retaliation.
“There is no way – no way – in which the Israelis will sit still while the Syrians send in their troops. I am sure of that,” said Kissinger, who sought to find out from the Israelis what level of Syrian activity in Lebanon would be acceptable to them.
Kissinger was also dismissive of the Israeli government, describing former General and premier Yigal Allon as a “sweet fool” and Yitzhak Rabin as “weak,” while lamenting the U.S. failure to influence its ally.
The secretary said he was ready to support Syrian efforts to achieve a political solution in Lebanon.
“We have to go back to Assad … Ask him what he is up to and, if we agree with him, we will do our best to help him,” he said. “But warn him what he does must be done without the use of Syrian regular forces.”
“Also have him give Assad my best personal regards,” he said to a diplomatic envoy.
In March 1976, as the Americans gleaned more details of the extent of Syria’s potential involvement, American officials sought clarity from Syria over its intentions in Lebanon and how long it would stay there.
Kissinger said the Israelis would intervene because they wished to strike a mortal blow to PLO strongholds in Lebanon, which he referred derisively to as “Fatahland.”
“Their position is that they cannot trust the Syrians,” Kissinger said. “They are not at all sure that the Syrians would leave if they go in, so that if they do go in, the Israelis would then quietly take over strategic points in southern Lebanon and in effect hold them hostage till the Syrians leave.”
But in a meeting with President Gerald Ford in late March, Kissinger said the U.S. might benefit from a Syrian intervention that strikes at the PLO.
“If Syria could go in quickly and clean it out, it would be good,” he said.
Kissinger floated the idea at the time that the Syrians could be replaced by a U.N. force after destroying the PLO.
But Kissinger was frustrated by Israel’s objections, and decided it was not worth the risk to greenlight a Syrian invasion of Lebanon if it risked sparking a regional war.
“If we had freedom of action we could perhaps act differently,” he said. “We could let the Syrians move and break the back of the PLO.”
Such an intervention would unite the Arab world, Kissinger lamented.
“The end result would be exactly what we have worked all these years to avoid: It would create Arab unity.”
He decried what he called “those idiots in Tel Aviv,” saying Israel would not acquiesce to U.S. pressure against invading south Lebanon unless America threatened to end military assistance and support sanctions in the U.N. against Israel.
Even after Syria’s intervention and the ensuing stalemate with the PLO, Kissinger said Syrian failure in Lebanon would mean the country’s fall under the sway of the PLO and the possible overthrow of Hafez Assad.
“I want to make it clear that a Syrian defeat in Lebanon would be a disaster,” he said at a meeting in the summer of 1976.
But he also described Syrian ambitions in Lebanon in hegemonic terms, agreeing that they sought “ancestral” ambitions. “I started with the assumption the Syrians would succeed. I forgot the infinite capacity of the Arabs to screw things up,” he said at a June 1976 meeting. “I thought they’d weaken the PLO, make it an appendage of Syria, bring in Jordan, and create a Greater Syria. I still think this is what [Assad] has in mind.”
Kissinger also excoriated the Israeli lobby in Washington for trying to shape American foreign policy.
“The Israelis used to lobby for their own interests,” he said at a meeting in August 1976. “Now they are lobbying to change the entire course of our policy to coincide with their own policy rather than our interests.”
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on September 23, 2013, on page 3.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2013/Sep-23/232198-kissinger-saw-the-benefits-of-syrian-intervention-in-lebanon.ashx#axzz2ffEF9Yya
Thanks Annie!